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I’m over my morning frustrations. Come to find out Danny is frustrated because we have too many types of sippy cups and he can’t find the correct lids to match the sippy… So crisis is adverted and we aren’t giving up on sippy cups just yet.

I have let my gym membership expire for the sake of our budget… so noble am I. So I have been driving daily to a hiking place in our little community and have been exploring different trails. I haul my butt up a fairly large hill to the different trails, and let Aubrey pick where we head from there. I have found many benefits to my morning hike.

Aubrey hikes with me, and some of our conversations are very enlightening. I doubt I’d hear half of what she is thinking if I didn’t share this time with her. Today she asked me about snakes and bees. She wanted to know why they like to bite people. I explained to her that they don’t like to bite people, they bite people because they are afraid. I told her she was so big and that she frightens them. She informed me that she wishes that we lived in Word World (PBS cartoon) so she could spell the word small be small and then they wouldn’t be afraid of her. She also wanted me to assure her that snake don’t eat lizards, she loves lizards. She is also very concerned that we are going to get lost, I haven’t found a solution to take away her fear yet, but with Aubrey I’m glad she is afraid we might get lost.

Taking Aubrey with me for my hike helps Aubrey to burn off some of her intense energy. That child is just full of life, yea that’s a good way to put it. So to take her for a 45 minute walk first thing in the morning helps her be a little less intense during the day. Before I would drop her off in the kid play room and that worked well, but she is actually benefiting physically by hiking with me.

When we get back to the car Alyssa starts to cry, ” more hiking” is what she says over and over and she fights hard when I put her in the car seat. I have a BOB jogging stroller and it handles the trails well, Alyssa loves the bumpy, bumpidy.

So I don’t have to pay, I get great conversation with my Aubrey and Alyssa is thrilled, all around everyone is happy!

This morning Danny declared no more sippy cups. I’m not sure what his issue is with sippy cups, but he said it has to end some where and he poured Alyssa a large glass of milk and headed for work. There is so much I could say here… all I’m going to say is sippy cups can end when he is on duty, but if I’m on duty… the sippy stays!

This brings me to a much larger issue that I have with Booster Seats. I should write a review on baby products. I really feel like boosters have major design flaws. There are so many crevices for food and milk to fall into, not to mention the cloth straps that don’t come off for cleaning. They are just an invitation for dirt and germs. I took Alyssa’s booster out this morning and hosed it down, luckily we have an abundance of sunshine here so that it will dry and not smell…

Not the best start for a morning, here’s hoping for a better day!

Well the day has finally come and Emma is not going to be happy. The kids are in need of shoes, so I ordered a pair of size 6 shoes for Tanner and a size 5 for Emma. We all knew that this would happen, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon, but Tanner is officially bigger than Emma. I’ll let him have his moment of gloating, and hopefully Emma won’t take it too hard. I try and assure Emma that really she wants him to be bigger than her, but she gets pretty upset when people think that Tanner is older than her. Now I guess we’ll have to see if Tanner’s feet can surpass his Uncle Benny’s, which I hear, but I’m not sure of, are bigger then Danny’s. A very “scientific” (I use the term loosely) website guesstimates that Tanner will be 6’5″ tall, and guesstimates Emma at 5’5″. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out in the end.

Emma had a mock gymnastic meet this morning, and the coach invited Aubrey to participate also. Emma is on the team at Cross Tumblers, but we decided not to compete this year. The cost to compete was a little overwhelming, and I felt like I couldn’t justify it. It’s hard when there are 4 children all wanting to do something different, and I want them all to be able to do what their heart desires, but I can’t say to one kid, I’m sorry we spent $500 on your sister, so you can’t do what you want. Emma loves gymnastics, so we’ll continue to train for this year and maybe she can boost her skills a little more and we’ll try competing next year. Anyway, the coach had a pre competition in the gym this morning, and Emma did well. I could tell she was nervous and that probably contributed to a few mistakes. Gymnastics is a hard sport, and I love the self discipline that it teaches. I love the way the girls hold their heads up when they walk, and the control they have over their bodies. I think gymnastics teaches a lot of great life skills, so we’ll continue with it. Aubrey has recently started gymnastics also, and is loving it. It was cute to see Emma put her arms around her little sister as they sat on the mat waiting for their turn. Aubrey would shout out when Emma was up there, “that’s my sister”. This is something for those two to share in and it’s great watching them give each other high fives. Aubrey stuck to Emma like a magnet, and Emma wasn’t embarassed by her, she introduced her to her friends and they were all very sweet with her. Emma’s also taking some rythmic gymnastic classes there, they teach routines using jumpropes, balls, ribbons. That might be something Aubrey would enjoy, I’ll have to look into that for her.

I couldn’t get Aubrey to stand up straight…

“I have to go potty” is what I’ve been hearing a lot lately from Alyssa. I really am in no mood to potty train her, so I’ve been ignoring her pleas. She won’t relent on her desire to potty, so I have been letting her go without a diaper.
So far the score is:
1 for the coffee table
1 for the sit and spin
1 for poo in the corner
1 for poo on the hard wood floor in front of Emma’s room
0 for the potty
Everytime she “goes” potty wherever it might be she runs to me and tells me “I did it” YUP you did it all right. I recently bought a Costco sized box of diapers so I have a while… I think we are making progress though she came to me today while wandering naked and demanded I put a diaper on her because she had to go potty. I’m not sure what this kid is thinking, but I’m patiently playing her game for a while, although I’m keeping my expectations low.

Yesterday was Aubrey’s birthday of course. So I’ll throw a few pictures of her opening gifts and blowing out candles. The pictures of her opening her gifts are after we got home from Lake Tahoe and I had just pulled her out of the bath so excuse the messy wet bath head.

We invited a few friends over for lunch yesterday to celebrate her birthday. Nothing elaborate, just lunch with some friends. Aubrey picked the menu, we had chicken nuggets and fruit kabobs that the kids made themselves.

Messy Bath Hair!

I made Aubrey a Barbie skirt cake. It was an interesting adventure. I had a hard time getting it high enough, so I had to keep baking more cakes. I think I baked 3 total to get it the right height. I was just about to saw off Barbie’s legs to get it the right height but Danny thought that could be a warping situation. It turned out alright, not fabulous, but alright!

4 years ago today I gave birth to the most beautiful baby. I really don’t remember much about her birth, other then it was unmedicated and the doctor missed the delivery, I don’t remember it being very traumatic. What stands out in my mind with Aubrey is the miracle that occurred when she was still inside.
We went to the doctor for our first appointment, and all was well, he scheduled an ultrasound and when we went to the ultrasound there was no baby. He diagnosed her as a blyted ovum there was no heart beat, just an empty sack. We were very sad, and prepared for the loss. The doctor made the choice to let me miscarry on my own, and told me to go home and it would happen within the week and he’ll keep close contact with me.
Needless to say we were both very sad, we were so excited when we found out that we were pregnant. I stayed close to home, but after one full week with nothing, and still feeling “pregnant” I decided to throw caution to the wind, and went with the family sledding.
I had Danny give me a blessing and he said that all would be fine. I was so angry when he finished, how could you tell me it was all going to be fine, when we both saw that ultrasound. The doctor had made it pretty clear that this baby was not to be.
I had an appointment the next monday to meet with the doctor, and he was surprised that I hadn’t miscarried, he sent me over for some lab work, and it showed I was still pregnant. I then spent the next week going in for lab test on a daily basis, and he was very kind to call daily to give me the results himself. He finally scheduled me for another ultrasound, and the look on his face when he saw that there was a fully formed appropriate sized, heart beating baby. I thought he was going to cry. He just kept shaking his head, and mumbling how he couldn’t understand how this could be. He apologized, but said that my blood levels were still messed up so we went on progesterone shots for the next 10 weeks of pregnancy. I worried for the rest of the pregnancy that there was something wrong and that we were just preventing what should have happened and that maybe we were making a mistake by preventing a miscarriage. It was an emotional time for me, but when we finally had our baby, I knew immediatly that everything was fine. I of course had to apologize to Danny for being so angry with him after the blessing. I was humbled, and was reminded that I’m not really in control in this life, and that I need to excercise my faith a little more.
Aubrey is a total delight. She has sparkled from day one and I fell completly in love with her from the moment she was born. She has always had the ability to make people smile, and laugh. She is the first to share, the first to cuddle, the first to cry for someone who’s sad. She is just what our family needed and we love her so much.


Today we had a little lunch for Aubrey with some of her friends, nothing big and elaborate, just a lunch. We are going to go to Lake Tahoe to celebrate her wonderful life. We love you Aubrey.

I think this is the longest I have gone without adding an entry to my blog. Has anyone missed me? We’ve been busy with school beginning, and all that comes with getting back into a routine after a summer of play. I have a lot of pictures of things we’ve been doing that I’d like to add I’m not sure how to catch up but I’ll give it a shot.
On Labor Day went hiking with some friends. We hang out with the Hamblin’s a lot and enjoy their company. They have a daughter who is in her early teens that Emma just loves, and she is very sweet with Emma. It’s nice to have a good role models for Emma.
The hike was on the west side of Lake Tahoe, to some water falls up there, but they weren’t really flowing this time of year. The trail was hard to stay on because of the giant granite rocks. The kids had a blast climbing and scaling all of the rocks, we kind of lost our focus of finding the falls but accidentally found them when we were just about to give up. The hike was short, maybe 3 miles total, but it was perfect for the little kids. Aubrey was able to hike the entire way on her own and even Alyssa got down and did some of it. Afterward we found a great Chinese Buffet at Tahoe and we enjoyed a nice lunch.

Skipping now to the present, Danny’s sister Bonny is here for a visit. The kids are loving the attention that can only come from an Aunt. We don’t have relatives near by so when someone comes to visit it’s a special treat. What can you do as a Mom, if you say no to that milk shake you look like a real party pooper, so I try and just let them enjoy the attention knowing that it will be a while until they get another visitor.
I wanted to get some pictures before Bonny heads back to Alaska, so I took everyone to Dayton State Park and played photographer. The light was fading quickly but everyone was fairly cooperative, Aubrey kept thinking it was funny to stick her tongue out in every picture, 3 year old humor I guess, but I finally bribed her with a sucker so she would cooperate, and the rest of it went well.

I think my kids look more like they could be Aunt Bonny’s kids rather than my own. I see where they get their blonde hair from. We’ve had a great visit with Bonny!

Summer is coming to a close, and I’m feeling the panic of getting the last few activities in. In reality I need to relax, it stays warm and delightful for a long time yet. Just because school starts doesn’t mean the fun has to end. The kids will be in shorts for months still, and camping is actually more enjoyable because of the cooler temperatures.
This week we had a pretty full schedule. We did Nature Buddies on Monday which is a free program put on by the state parks dept. and the state park is just a few miles away which makes this an easy activity for me. We picked up Makayla, Emma’s friend and spent our morning playing in nature. They did an activity on birds and showed the kids lots of different nests. Then they had all sorts of activities for them to participate in. Aubrey loves the rock painting she runs straight there and spends probably 45 minutes just painting the rocks, I need to remember this for future activities at home. I’m not sure what it is about rock painting that holds her attention, but I can hardly get her to move to any of the other activities.
They had some popcorn and small sticks for the kids to try and eat like they were eating with beaks, they made bird feeders, and they always dig a trench and fill it with water for the kids to play in. Tanner caught a frog, and put it in a paper boat and floated it on the small lake that they had dug. BOYS!

On Wednesday we went up to Lake Tahoe. It’s really pretty easy to go up there, a few snacks some shovels and buckets and a few floaties and you have entertainment for hours. We arrived at the lake around 10am and didn’t leave until almost 5pm. The day couldn’t have been more beautiful I would describe it for you, but you wouldn’t believe me, it was a day beyond description. I went for a nice swim, I took all four kids with me all the way out to the bouy, Alyssa in a floaty and the other kids in their life jackets. Lisa took Aubrey and her son Nicholas in a small boat. The water is so clear and refreshing. Tanner spent a lot of his time trying to catch Crawdads, or Crayfish, he got pinched a couple of times, I chock it up to a learning experience. He was explaining to me today how you can’t grab them by the tail or they flip up and pinch you… not that I’ll be trying anytime soon, not my cup of tea. I have found that coming home from Lake Tahoe is a challenge. The kids are tired, and sand is stuck everywhere, they don’t want to shower or bathe because they are so tired, but the sand and sunscreen needs to come off, but it’s worth it.

Today we spent the day cleaning up. Running around takes it toll on the house. I think I had to pry a fork off the counter that was stuck down with honey, and the laundry requires me to stay home at least one day a week and do nothing but laundry. We got everything put back together this morning and as a reward went to the library.
Tomorrow is Friday and Danny and I have the opportunity to go to the temple, meaning that we found a babysitter desperate enough for money to watch the kids for 6 hours while we make the drive to Reno and back and catch some dinner along the way. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, I really feel like I could use some time away. Danny has been gone a lot lately. Yesterday he didn’t make it home unitl 11pm and got a phone call at 6am something along the lines of “my spell checker isn’t working” my thought was buy h
im a dictionary but I’m sure it was more serious then what I picked up on, but Danny was out the door before I could roll over and see what was up. He’s home now and out working on the yard. He says he needs the physical labor of yard work to rest his brain, so he’s running some new drip and trying to secure the fences better to keep the neighbors dog out of our yard. I’m having him move some plants from the front yard to the back yard, the contractors special on the landscaping meant that they just huck the plants in the yard with not rhyme or reason and they are really in a bad spots. I guess that sums up our week, we have nothing planned for the weekend. Hopefully we’ll get some rest and relaxation.

So I’m wasting time on the computer, listening to Aubrey play with her friend Kendra. Aubrey comes in from out side and says “pretend that I’m sleeping and you cut me in half.” Funny girl. Yesterday at church Aubrey’s primary teacher pulls me aside laughing, she says that Aubrey just had a funny conversation and it goes like this:
Jayce: Aubrey I was thinking of inviting you over to my house after church.
Aubrey: I can’t, we’re moving today to Africa
Jayce: Oh that’s too bad, now I can’t marry you
Aubrey: I’m just kidding silly you can still marry me
She is such a silly little firecracker. She definitely keeps me laughing.

Danny and I married in the Salt Lake City Temple. I look back and wonder where the time has gone. Life has brought us so many wonderful blessings, challenges, and fun. I was pretty sure that when I married Danny that I knew what love was, but I have discovered that I’m just scratching the surface with my knowledge and I look forward to what our future has in store for us.
Danny is such an amazing husband, we were engaged after only 3 weeks of dating, crazy is what I would tell one of my daughters if they pulled such a stunt, but I have no regrets. Danny is a great father, husband, and any other roll that needs to played in our life, he just seems to know what to do.
It’s funny, we haven’t done this on purpose, but we never really celebrate our anniversary. I’m not sure when it started, in the beginning we gave each other gifts and things, but it’s kind of been taken over by more pressing things, like life. I don’t really mind though, it gives me the opportunity to think about my husband and not what he gave me this anniversary. We usually go out to dinner, but that is about it. I know that Danny would give me anything and that is enough for me. Someday I’m hoping to replace those dinners with trips to far off lands, but right now we are Mom and Dad. I know that he loves me in all the little things that he does, he’s the first one to do the dishes after dinner. Or that laundry that need hanging, he’s on it. Those are just little things. How about the many times he’s volunteered to clean up puke at 2:00am, or change the diapers before I even know that the baby is messy. The are too many things that he does to name them all. He’s just wonderful, and marriage is the best thing that has happened to me!